


Gone

by pickleplum



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Prompt Fic, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-30
Updated: 2013-10-30
Packaged: 2017-12-31 00:08:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1024993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pickleplum/pseuds/pickleplum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Where’s Doctor Geiszler?” I ask quietly. She looks up, startled. Both her English and my Cantonese are limited. I can only make out one word of her answer: Gone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gone

“...and even if they did,” I snarl and pivot away, “you’d kill yourself.” 

“Or I’d be a rockstar,” he replies, quietly enough that I can pretend not to hear.

I finish composing my report on the potential stabilization of the Breach for the Marshal and treat myself to a cookie in the mess hall before turning in for the night. The next morning I finally awaken at 0745. For a moment I’m confused. My alarm is always set for 0530. Newton. Only Newton would break into my room and do something so childish. I recognize his handiwork. I’ll have to reprogram the lock. Again. Such a ridiculous bit of ‘revenge’ for feeling I wronged him in front of the Marshal and Ranger Hansen. I sigh and shuffle my way through my morning routine. I’ll have to find another packet of those atrocious candied squid he likes so much to smooth matters over.

The maintenance staffer, Li Xia, who comes through every morning is mopping spots of blood from the floor near a bank of strange equipment in the center of the lab when I arrive. I recognize one piece of the gear: A makeshift squid cap like the Jaeger pilots wear under their helmets. Oh. Oh no. 

“Where’s Doctor Geiszler?” I ask, my voice tight with fear. She looks up, startled. Both her English and my Cantonese are limited. 

I can only make out one word of her answer: Gone.

The … idiot. The idiot did it. Drifted with a kaiju. And now he’s dead.

I always want to be right, but not this time. Not about this. Not this.

I sink into a chair before my strength leaves me utterly.

Li Xia hands me something small and silver as she nods shyly and leaves. It’s Newton’s voice recorder. I turn the it over and over between my fingers. The odds are very good the fool taped what he was doing and thinking. Morbid curiosity gets the better of me and I press the play button. 

Newton’s voice rasps out of the tiny speaker. I can’t help but roll my eyes as he rambles about the condition of his precious kaiju brain sample and as he blames me for his rash actions. It stings, but I am not surprised at his words. 

I hear his sharp intake of breath. A moment later, there is the dull sound of a body slumping to the floor. I thumb the recorder off and set it gingerly on my desk.

I do not have time to dwell on Newton’s death or grieve for him. There is work to be done and I have my part to play. I grip my knees and draw as deep a breath as possible. Then I wipe my eyes, straighten as best I can, and walk slowly to my chalkboards.

Hovering in LOCCENT after the alarm sounds, the thrill of being correct in predicting a double event is only momentary as the monsters arrive in Hong Kong and tear through _Cherno Alpha_ and _Crimson Typhoon_ as though they were the Wall of Life. Then the electromagnetic pulse one of them produces disables _Striker Eureka_ and blinds LOCCENT. The two kaiju are so perfectly _designed_ to destroy the last Jaegers I momentarily wonder if Newton was right when he theorized weeks ago they are purpose-built. Why did he have to be right about that rather than about his ability to survive a Drift with a kaiju?

Pentecost sends out Mako, Mr. Becket, and _Gipsy Danger_ to fight. Pentecost is sending his daughter to die. With no Jaegers left there will be no Operation Pitfall. We will all join Newton shortly. I shake my head to clear the thought.

But Mako and Mr. Becket defeat Leatherback and kill Otachi 50,000 feet above the Earth. I hobble after Pentecost and Choi to the observation deck to watch them fall. They glow like a meteor. The horror of the sight holds my complete attention. We finally breathe again when she stands and we hear Mr. Becket and Mako over the comms. 

Marshal Pentecost turns to me and barks, “Get to Doctor Geiszler immediately!” 

I freeze. “Sir?”

“You heard me, Doctor Gottlieb. Gather up Geiszler’s equipment and get to him. He should have his kaiju brain by now.”

“Ye-yes, sir!” I salute and move as fast as I can to the lab. Alive? Alive. Somehow. And preparing to Drift again. This time, apparently, with the Marshal’s approval. 

Newton’s Drift equipment is a horrible, fragile tangle of cables, chips, and … is that a bellows? Where did he find _that?_ I snarl at the techs trying to shift it to the helicopter and watch as their boots smear the few drops of blood Li Xia missed. If this Drift kills Newton it’s not going to be because I let the machinery be damaged.

Alive? But for how much longer?

We circle between partially-destroyed buildings to a spotlit crater. Men scurry across the remains of the fallen kaiju and at the edge of the action a familiar form in a black leather jacket and a ridiculously skinny tie peers up at us.

Newton Geiszler.

He runs over to the helicopter shouting “Did you bring it? If you broke something, I’m totally telling Pentecost on you and he’ll _soooo_ kick your ass! Let’s go! Move! _Move!”_

He’s bruised and bleeding and must be half-blind behind that cracked lens, but he’s clearly not a ghost. Li Xia must have meant ‘he left’, not ‘he’s dead’. I mentally slap myself for leaping to such a conclusion. Seeing Newton alive does nothing, however, for my desire to physically slap him for doing something so reckless.

I march up to him as he drags cables to connect his device to what is apparently a deceased baby kaiju. Was this a triple event? Were my calculations wrong? Never mind that now.

“You! I thought you were dead!” I poke my finger against the tip of his noise. He swats my hand away.

“Ummm … nope! _Obviously._ Came close a few times today, though.” He fixes me with one of his maddening smirks. “I told you it would work. Did you really think it wouldn’t work? You should know by now that I’m never wrong about that sort of thing, dude.”

I open my mouth to argue and think better of it. Instead I grab him by the shoulders and kiss him forcefully on the lips. Every muscle in his small form tenses and his eyes go wide as dinner plates. His hesitates the barest moment before he returns the kiss and wraps me in embrace that squeezes most of the air from my lungs. I reciprocate the clinch with all of my strength.

“Uh… dude? Hermann?” He mumbles against my chest before pushing himself away, gently. “I’m _really_ enjoying this and totally hope we can do it again later, but I kinda have to Drift with this kaiju right now so we don’t all die.”

“We’ll do it together. Share the neural load.” Newton blinks at me through his broken glasses. He nods, speechless for once in his life, as I seize the spare squid cap. I adjust the software to account for a three-way Drift and jam the cap on my head.

“You ready for this?”

“Yes. Yes, of course.” I am terrified.

The Drift is horrible. The sensation of having my mind invaded by another human being, let alone an entire alien species, is almost more than my poor nerves can handle and certainly more than my stomach can. But it needed to be done and now we must tell the Rangers what we have learned.

We rush back to the helicopter and Newton screams at the pilot to break every air safety rule to get us back to the Shatterdome as fast as possible before settling himself next to me on the bench in the cargo area.

“I don’t think I shall ever let you out of my sight again,” I shout into his ear over the roar of the rotor blades, “if only to save myself the worry that you’ll do something stupid and potentially fatal without proper failsafes. Like the presence of a responsible adult.”

He turns to me and smiles, saying “I am totally, completely okay with that.”

The flight back to the Shatterdome takes the longest short minutes of my life, but then Newton and I are racing to LOCCENT to save the world. Together.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [the prompt:](http://pacificrimkink.livejournal.com/1613.html?thread=1797965#t1797965)  
> “Dr. Gottlieb doesn't find Newt having a seizure on the floor of his lab; someone else does (whoever you want it to be, really). Whoever this person is, they inform Hermann that Dr. Geiszler has died in result of his drifting with the kaiju (maybe he talked in very fast Cantonese and Hermann didn't understand? Maybe he just thought he was dead because he found him after Hermann would have and he was completely still? Or anything else really). Meanwhile, Newt has spoken with the Marshal and is about to leave and find Hannibal Chau. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT IS COMPLETELY YOUR CHOICE. I just want Hermann's thoughts when he realizes this idiot who he apparently cares a whole fucking lot about isn't dead and just really cute I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD hugging and maybe kissing and saving the world together because they're so compatible. yes. please.”
> 
> Recommended listening: [Jawbox, _Grippe_ , Track 10, "Bullet Park”](http://youtu.be/ifCBIdQM5Lo)


End file.
